Dodging Prophecies
by Grey-Rain-Cloud
Summary: Harry Potter is a Half-Blood in more than one way. After his parents were attacked by Voldemort's followers and tortured to insanity he was left at his magic hating relatives house. He was soon dumped at the nearest Orphanage though, without even his name. What happens when he is adopted, never going to Hogwarts with nobody really noticing until Lily and James are cured and asking?
1. Chapter 1

_The red haired woman at the bar looked down. She was more than a bit tipsy, having consumed more vodka then she should have, but she still looked like at any minute she would burst into tears. Everyone was giving her a very wide berth because of this. Who would go up to the twenty year old crying woman with a wedding ring on when there were nineteen year old girls wearing tight shirts and short skirts giggling with a condom in their pocket? Not many._

_That was why it was a surprise to everyone in the small dingy bar that was coherent enough that one man ventured over there and looked at the other occupants with and irritated expression, as if they were the dead toaster that had just burnt the morning toast for the last time. He had a tanned and slightly disfigured face as well as body—his leg was bad enough that he walked with a cane—and dark brown hair that looked black in the dim lighting. _

_He sat awkwardly beside the red head, completely silent. He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out various nuts, screws, and wiring. Even a tiny screwdriver. He fiddled with them for a good ten minutes in complete silence, well aware that the red head was watching him as if he was fascinating._

_"Are you just gonna watch me the whole night or are ya going to speak?" The man asked gruffly._

_This strangely enough made the woman smile, and her glazed green eyes shined. "You from America?" Her words were slightly slurred._

_The man grunted. "Was it the accent that gave me away?"_

_She laughed as if it was the funniest thing she had heard in a long time—it probably was. Her expression changed abruptly though and she looked so sad. "Do you have children?" _

_"Yes." He answered, ignoring how random the question was._

_"Do you have a wife?"_

_"I do."_

_"Do you love her?" The woman sounded pleading._

_"I do." He paused before elaborating. "But we're not really together; she has a boyfriend. I still love her though."_

_"I'm Lily." The red head said._

_For the first time the man looked right at Lily and gave a distorted smile. "Hephaestus." _

_That night, Lily would get drunk along with Hephaestus and would confide that her husband couldn't have children, she would tell him how she had always wanted a baby, and how she and James—her husband—had become so distant since the news and that whenever they did talk they fought over the stupidest things. She was afraid he might leave her. She was afraid that she might eventually want him to, because she wanted children._

_Then they would rent a room for the night together, and when Lily woke the next day lying in an empty bed naked she would run back to James and confess. James would forgive her. It would only be three weeks later that they would both realise the consequences and joy of what that night would bring. _

_Harry James Potter. Born on August first would have loose curls of dark brown hair, bright green eyes, and only slightly tan skin. He would look enough like James to pass for his biological son because of a Blood Potion that Lily took while still pregnant. Nobody but James, Lily, and Hephaestus would know the truth for a long time, mostly due to the fact of what happened on the thirty first of October the next year._


	2. Chapter 2

June and Brian Willow were vacationing in London when they heard that an Orphanage was closing down. The children—there were about twenty—would all be distributed to the other Orphanages in the closer areas or given to foster care if they weren't adopted soon. June thought it sounded as if the children were on clearance and was disturbed. When she voiced her thoughts to Brian, all he said was,

"Why don't we go and get one? It can't be that much paperwork. Besides, you said that you wanted a dog or something."

June huffed. "Dogs are not the same as babies Brian! I do want a baby though." She smiled dreamily and twirled he tie-dye skirt. "We would make wonderful parents… let's go tomorrow, now I feel as if I've eaten a whole peanut free chocolate bar!"

The next day they walked into the Orphanage wearing their best clothes—June wore a bejewelled jean jacket, yellow summer dress, flip-flops, many beaded necklaces, with her dirty blond hair in a high bun. Brian wore a plum suit, a Christmas tie with red and green stripes, flip-flops, with his auburn hair slicked to one side dramatically. They were dressed to impress, and by the look the caretaker gave them, they had succeeded.

The caretaker, Mrs. Brown, cleared her throat. "Anyway, all the children are in the playroom if you'll follow me. We've just woken those two and under, so they may be a little cranky, but otherwise it should be fine. I'll just leave you with them; there are still some files that need to be packed up."

When the married couple walked into the playroom, it was easy to see why the place was closing down. The walls were a faded blue with random pictures scattered on them—whether it be a pinned up finger painting or scribbled drawn _on_ the wall—and the sofa was broad shouldered, patched and grey, holding five children when it should only carry three. All of the toys were outdated or hand-made. There was a crudely sewn rag-doll, block cars, and old and worn Halloween costumes for dress-up. It was as if the whole community stopped caring.

"I want to take them all home with me Brian." June whispered.

"Well… we can only afford one… so…"

June hit his arm. "We're not buying one! We are adopting a baby! A life!"

"I know darling, but lives cost money. We can only afford three lives; there're two of us so we can only get one."

June made a face at him and turned to observe the children. There was a little boy with blond hair and a cow lick pulling on an older girl's hair and giggling. There was a red haired girl dressing up a grumpy baby and chattering inanely. There were the angst ridden teenagers huddled together and griping about how unfair their life was, and the angry preteens arguing with one another about nothing. There were none that really stood out to either June or Brian.

"I want it to be like when I saw my wedding dress." June confided. "Where I saw it in the vintage store window and knew instantly that it was _the one._"

"So babies can be compared to wedding dresses but not pets?"

Brian was ignored.

"Adam honey, open your eyes. The sun is up! Don't you want to play? I'll get you some crayons, how about that?" June and Brian heard from the hallway.

A woman of about thirty with curly black hair that was greying at the temples from stress and a prominent nose with a thin face came through the door. She had a tired smile on her face, and was looking at a little boy about two years old that had his face squished into her neck. He was still in little blue pajamas with stars and moons covering them. He had horrible bed head; his brown curls were frizzy and electrified.

"No!" The little boy's voice denied, and as if to accentuate his point, he wrapped his tiny arms around her neck and burrowed deeper.

"Awe, but Adam if you don't wake up soon all of the other children will eat the raspberries!"

"_No!_" Adam gasped in horror. It had the desired effect though, because he lifted his head and his eyes were open wide. He had beautiful green eyes, June noticed, and a cute face. His mouth was small, along with his nose and his is cheeks were chubby with baby fat still. It seemed he realised that he had been tricked too when he heard the woman carrying him laughing slightly because his eyes narrowed slightly in an attempt to look stern. "Bad Rose. Mean."

'Rose' smiled, and June and Brian got the feeling that this was a daily occurrence. "I know, I know. Now, why don't you introduce yourself to our guests? Be polite." Rose warned, finally noticing the couple. She walked over, still holding Adam and introduced herself. "Hello, my names Rosemary Scotts and this cutie is Adam."

"I'm June Willow, this is my husband Brian." Before she could say anything else, Adam held out his arms to her in the universal sign to be held abruptly. He looked pleading, and how do you refuse those teary emerald eyes anything?

Rosemary laughed and handed him over. "He loves anybody with plant names, that's why I'm the one who has to wake him up. He has so much energy that he burns himself out by the end of the day so he's brutal in the morning. The only continuous way to get him to wake up is the promise of raspberries." Adam stuck out his tongue at her before babbling at June and pointing out some of the drawings on the wall. Mostly the ones actually drawn _on the wall_. "Yes he's our little graffiti artist."

Seeing as June had wandered off, Brian took it upon himself to find out about the toddler—it was obvious that his wife was enamoured and truth be told Brian couldn't help but smile at the child too. "Why is he at the Orphanage? Are his parents out of the picture?"

Rosemary looked an odd combination of sad and furious. "We're not sure. On the morning of November First we opened the door and there he was, looking absolutely miserable. He didn't even have any identification on him, so we gave him a name: Adam Smith. We figured that the last name would change when he was adopted." She looked at him hopefully. "We also made his birthday November First, and we figure he's about two years old."

"How long until this place is closing for good?"

"About two months."

Brian watched his wife smile and play with Adam for a moment. The boy was polite, funny, had some personality, liked them already, and was adorable. He could already feel himself becoming attached to the toddler, and he hadn't even really spoken to him. Was this what it was like to pick out the perfect wedding dress?


	3. Chapter 3

Adam was five when he met his birth father. He had moved to New York with his new mommy and daddy and he loved it. It was loud and colorful, nothing like London which was grey and drab ninety per cent of the time. He had lost his British accent and some of his baby fat, but he had not lost his energy in the least. He was constantly moving and doing whatever caught his fancy at that moment in time. He was an expert at painting his walls and taking apart all of his toys before putting them back together again. His parents just let him grow up his own way—however odd he may turn out to be.

His very best friend was Violet, who lived with her parents in the apartment above his own, and they made sure that at least once a week they would meet up in the hallway of either his floor or hers to play Hop-Scotch. They would get masking tape and together—instead of using chalk on concrete—would construct the perfect Hopping Ground on the mouldy grey carpet. It was on one of these meetings that started a chain reaction to Adam meeting his father.

Violet Jennings was six years old, a whole year up on Adam, so she was looked up to greatly. She had frizzy blond hair that she always kept in two braided pig-tails, blunt-and-cheerful brown eyes, and freckles all over that she had inherited from her father. She had a fondness for Hello Kitty, so more likely than not she would have a Hello Kitty dress, bow, or socks on—always in pink. Then there was the mysterious backpack sporting the characters face on it that she would tote around with her all day—it was mysterious because whenever Adam would ask about it she would hold her finger to her lips and go '_Shh!_'

That day—Saturday—something was different though. At first Adam couldn't figure it out, so he just frowned and sucked on his raspberry lollypop harder to help his thought process. She had her backpack clutched to her chest overdramatically; her dress was still pink with Kitty faces all over it; and her hair was in its usual twin braids—Adam had once asked her why she didn't have just one _bigger_ braid but apparently, "_If there was only one, it would get lonely. What if it started to cry?_" Adam scrunched up his face. Nothing looked different! He was about to give up because there was only so much hard thinking that he could take, but then his eyes caught on something shiny.

Adam's sharp green lookers zoomed in on her ears. There were big sparkles in them! They looked like the ones that his mummy wore, except they were blue instead of white. "What are those?" Adam enquired.

"What's what?"

"Those things in your ears, what are they?"

"Oh!" Violet smiled excitedly. "My mummy said that now since I'm big I could get my ears pierced like her so that everyone would know that I'm a big girl! It hurt a bit, and they itch in the bath, but they're so _pretty_! Don't you like them?" She shoved her left ear in Adam's face.

Adam peered through wide eyes at the big sparkle. He had always liked shiny things; they were almost as irresistible as raspberries or metallic felts.

"I want to get some too!"

"You can't though." Violet sounded smug.

"Why?"

"'Cause then you'd be a…" She took a deep breath. "COPY CAT!"

Adam pouted. Copy Cats sucked. Nobody wanted to be accused of that, but Adam really wanted some of his own sparkles! "What if… what if…" His eyes lit up. "What if you said that it was okay?"

"And why would I do that?" Violet placed a hand on her hip and cocked it obnoxiously to the side.

Adam paused and pulled out his lollypop. He stared at it. There was about half of it left. "I'll give you the rest of my sucker."

Violet held out her hand. "Done."

That was how Adam ended up in the nearest piercing shop called 'All That Glitters' with his eccentric parents. The guy at the cash register had a pale face, bald head, tattooed arms, and a nose ring. Adam thought it was cool that he had permanent pictures on his arms.

"My names Tim," The guy said while using a Sharpie to mark on his ears where to position the gun. There had been a minor problem when Adam had heard about how exactly the sparkles were given to a person—_"You're going to shoot me?!"_—but after his daddy had said that Violet had gotten the same thing and she was fine he had calmed down. As much as he ever calmed down. "This is going to sting for a moment, but it'll be gone just as fast." He smiled in a reassuring way.

The gun fired.

"Ow!" Adam exclaimed, his eyes tearing up a bit. It had hurt more than a sting. He concentrated on his ear and pretended that it didn't hurt so much, and then stilled. It had worked! His ear didn't hurt anymore!

"Sorry kid, but there's only one more to go." Tim hurried to the other ear, sensing that his window of opportunity was closing, but the gun jammed and no matter how much pressure he put on it, it wasn't budging. "I need to get a new gun from the back; I'll only be a minute." He put the malfunctioning gun down on the counter and left.

After a minute someone emerged from where Tim had left, but it wasn't Tim. This man was older looking and even more interesting. He walked with a prominent limp and used a cane. He had a thick beard that looked scorched in places. He had a deep tan and brown hair and big hands. He was tall with broad shoulders of someone that worked hard. He could be called ugly, but to a five year old mind he was interesting and slightly intimidating.

He picked up the abandoned piercing gun silently and went over to Adam. He seemed to smile slightly at the boy, but it was hard to tell with his beard obscuring his face and disfigured features. "There aren't many boys that come in to get their ears pierced."

Adams's face relaxed. He had decided that he liked this man; he seemed kind. "My friend Violet got them." The boy nodded to emphasize his point as if it made complete sense. It did in his mind: Violet was cool, so getting your ears pierced was cool.

The man looked at the ear already done and raised a scruffy eyebrow. "Why did you choose the ruby?"

"Ruby?" Adam looked confused.

"The red stone."

"Oh! I chose it 'cause it reminded me of raspberries. Raspberries are the best, they taste so good and—" The man pulled the trigger. Adam blinked; it hadn't hurt as much that time.

"Here." The man handed him a golden candy.

"Ohhh! What flavour is it?" The boy started bouncing in his chair with suppressed energy from staying still so long.

The man gave a sort of grunting laugh. "Any flavour you want."

Adam popped the candy into his mouth and instantly the taste of fresh raspberries filled him up. He imagined himself surrounded by a puffy cloud of the berries where rainbows exploded with tasty juice. It was the best candy he had ever had; it was totally worth giving up the last half of his lollypop to Violet to come here. The best part was that the small throbbing from the second piercing didn't hurt at all anymore. Adam figured that it was a special healing candy, like the one the doctors gave after his shots except this one worked.

While Adam was distracted the man had laid his palm over the young boys forearm. Adam felt a tingle-burn that disappeared as soon as it came. When the man pulled his hand back there was something that looked almost burned into Adam's skin but without the inflammation—it was like a brand. The picture was of a hammer within a circle. Adam thought that it was super cool, but all the same looked at the man like he had done some great offence. What if his mummy and daddy didn't like it? He could get into trouble!

"It's so Hecate can't have any claim to you." The man explained. "She would try to use you just because you come from her little magic world that she created as well as ours. But this is my putting a claim on you before she even notices you. That way she can't say that pulling your strings was fair game. Since you're going to start having more accidental magic she may notice you. She may not as well. This is just a fail safe."

Adam really didn't understand any of what was just said to him, but he nodded anyway. All he had really comprehended from that was the word _magic_. Adam was glad he had such a good memory, because he had a feeling that this meeting was significant and that although he didn't know what was being said to him, he would understand in the future. "What's your name Mister?"

"You'll find out soon enough, son." He patted Adam on the head once before disappearing.

Tim came back through the door with a slightly glazed look in his eyes. "Alright! We're finished, I'll ring up the cost for you and then you can be on your way."


	4. Chapter 4

Pre-school went great for Adam, along with Kindergarten. It was all about painting and drawing and playing, all of which Adam loved. He made a lot of friends and he was always the best at making paper air planes. He was a definitely slower when they were learning the alphabet but that wasn't his fault because _the letters would not stop dancing!_ When he had told this to his grade one teacher, a woman named Miss Todd who had a fake smile permanently pasted on her face, she had gone straight to his parents.

After that Adam had to go to a doctor that was especially for children. It was a horrible place to be in Adam's opinion, the doctor's office. It had smelled funny and there were no colors. Adam's fingers had itched to splatter paint along them at random, but he knew that although his parents allowed that in his own room so it would reflect his personality, he was not allowed to do it anywhere else. He was especially not allowed to do it on the doctor's pristine white walls. The doctor—who had not even given Adam a candy afterwards!—had diagnosed Adam with Dyslexia and severe ADHD. Then he had tried to shove pills at the small family like he was trying to make up for the absent candy.

June and Brian Willow were very odd people. They did not eat meat; they did not understand where the appeal was to eat something with a face and mind of its own was, and thought of it as cannibalism. June ran a small bakery close to their apartment with minimal help. Brian wrote magazine articles about conserving the Earth's resources and how people were killing the planet and helped out in the bakery when there was down time. Something that they felt strongly about was that pills were not always the answer. They wanted Adam to feel comfortable with who he was, and his Dyslexia and ADHD was a part of him, so their response was the obvious '_No!'_

After that Adam went back to school with the knowledge that he had _two_ special conditions. He felt very special, but he didn't want to brag to the other kids. How would they feel if they found out how special Adam was when they themselves were never told by a professional doctor person? Adam reckoned they would feel pretty down. The best part was when his parents agreed to let him get double piercings after the appointment. He got green stones this time. He was a little disappointed that the man who had given him the healing raspberry candy wasn't there, but was still ecstatic to show off his new sparkles to Violet.

It was when grade two came around that things started to look down. Their teacher— — was a quiet man with slate grey hair and a stern face. He wasn't quiet in the nice read-a-book-by-the-fire kind of way either; it was more that whenever he entered a room he commanded silence. He would pin you with his stare and dissect you with his eyes. Adam thought that he could see right through to a person's soul.

Mr. Arkson didn't verbalize his demand for stillness either; it was just something the whole room acknowledged subconsciously. Adam had a big problem with that one. He was always fiddling with something, whether it's pipe cleaners, his mechanical pencil, making origami, or doodling in his art book. He was listening at the same time to what Mr. Arkson was talking about; he just needed to be doing something with his hands in order to focus, and he was having enough trouble with the silence that only seemed awkward to him. Mr. Arkson didn't understand what ADHD entailed because he didn't have it himself and he refused to listen to the opinion of a seven year old child. Adam didn't understand why his teacher was so serious all the time. It seemed like a waste of time. The two didn't get along well.

That wasn't the really big problem that year though; it was the two student helpers. One was a girl named Haylie who looked about sixteen with brown hair and an extremely pretty face who wore a cheerleader outfit all the time. She said that she was getting extra credits for helping the "Little _boys_ and girls." Adam thought it was creepy how she stared at him so hungrily, as if she wanted to roast him over a fire or microwave him then chow down on his tasty ribs. Whenever he saw her out of the corner of his eye she also looked all pale with sharp teeth and with mismatched legs, with one of a donkey and one made out of metal.

The other was a paranoid boy named Cedar. He was tanned, had a pretty good mustache for a fifteen year old, and always wore a green toque with a recycling sign on it. He walked funny, with a sort of trotting limp but it didn't appear to give him any pain. Adam had decided he liked him, mostly because his name was Cedar, but also because he helped him with his reading. He also didn't seem to trust Haylie so that made him even better. What Adam didn't like was that Cedar wouldn't stop smelling him. Yes, Adam knew he smelt wonderfully like citrus, but that did not mean that he liked it when people sniffed him.

It was in the middle of the year though that everything came to the climax. Mr. Arkson had forced Adam to stay in at break to finish reading the short story that they were assigned and hadn't finished in class like everyone else. His new friend Emma—who was shy with strait red hair and blue eyes and a pointy chin that all of the mean kids called Carrot-Top, but then again the mean kids also called him Stupid-Face but he was beating them in maths class by a mile—had assured him that she would get him a grape juice box that were given for free at break.

Everything was going fine at first, Cedar and Haylie were monitoring him and Adam was reading diligently, but there was a certain frustration that he had been bottling up all year. Mr. Arkson's condescending looks, his classmates mean comments, and not being able to read when he was trying _so hard_ finally burst free. Tears pricked at his eyes and abruptly childish rage overcame him that made him want to throw something. _Why couldn't it be in a language he understood?!_ The brown haired boy felt a peculiar rush as he thought that; his fingers tingled and his toes went numb.

When Adam looked back at the story he could read it perfectly, but it wasn't in English anymore. He stared at it in wonder and wondered what language it was. It looked a very squiggly. He'd have to ask his parents, or maybe Violet; she was the smartest person he knew. He wasn't the only one to notice something though. Cedar's nostrils flared and he peered over his shoulder, then he promptly squealed and hurried out of the room while pulling out some fancy golden coins out of his pocket.

It was unfortunate that Cedar had left without noticing the viciously victorious grin that had spread across Haylie's face like poisoned marmalade. Adam tapped his fingers to his desk uncomfortably and stared at the creepy girl in horror. Suddenly he could see her for what she was while looking straight at her now, and she was scary. He stood up. She clopped over menacingly.

"Don't worry little demi-god," She hissed through her sharp canines. "Everything will be fine if you just stay still. Just let me _drink your blood!_" She pounced.

Adam fell backwards and scuttled back like a crab, but the monster lady kept getting closer. He rolled onto his knees and crawled under a desk. The monster picked up the desk like it was a pillow and threw it across the room. Adam kept fleeing—he really hated conflict and fighting; it made his skin crawl with invisible spiders when he saw fighting—until he was backed into a corner and all he could do was watch as the demon lady advanced on him, her eyes filled with malicious glee. He continually wished that she would just _stop stop stop!_

Then it was silent. The demon lady was completely frozen, her limbs stuck to her, stiff as a board. Her eyes were wide and full of hate and fear. That was when Cedar and Mr. Arkson walked in.

"My God…" Mr. Arkson breathed, looking at the ruined classroom.

"The crazy lady tried to attack me Mr. A!" Adam exclaimed while scrambling out of the corner.

"Indeed." It was hard to refute the obvious.

When the summer came Adam came home to see that Cedar was sitting in his livingroom, munching on a tin can. He sat down with all three of them—June, Brian, and Adam—and started,

"Have you ever heard of the Greek Gods?"


	5. Chapter 5

In the hallway of their apartment building Violet Jennings and Adam Willow, best friends and hated by the apartment owners next to theirs because of their constant noise were playing catch with a baseball that Violet had procured from her mysterious backpack. It was the day after Adam had heard that one of his birth parents was a god and he was still bouncing everywhere. For seven year old Adam to hear that he was getting to go to an exclusive summer camp for people just like him was like giving him a raspberry flavoured Pixie Stick.

Cedar—who was part _goat!_—had explained that most demi-gods had ADHD and Dyslexia so that they had better reflexes and could read Ancient Greek as if it were their first language.

"Is that what I turned the English into before Crazy Haylie tried to attack me?" Adam had asked, just remembering what had happened a couple months previous. With all the excitement and fear of the demon lady he had pushed what seemed insignificant to the back of his mind. "Was that Ancient Greek? Can all demi-gods do that?"

"No," said Cedar, happy that both Adam and his parents were taking the news well. "I think that you're the son of Hecate, Goddess of Magic. If you try then you can change your school work into Greek to read and be able to change it back. You can also write your schoolwork in Greek and change it into English, all you have to do is focus hard enough and practice and it'll become like second nature."

Adam had remembered what the man at the ear piercing place said about Hecate and how she might try to manipulate him and thought it unlikely that she would be his mother. Then he thought of his hammer brand on his forearm. His godly parent probably had a hammer as their symbol. He'd figure it out at camp.

"You changed English into Ancient Greek?" June asked.

"I was angry." Adam defended himself.

"Oh no, it's not that. It's just that now you can put that memory of yours to work and get the best grades out of everyone in class. Now you can show you're teachers how brilliant you are!" June smiled brightly for her son. It was well known to her that Adam was a genius, and now his teachers would know it too. She had not been impressed with Mr. Arkson. She and Brian had gone into talk to him on the first day of the year to make sure he knew how to deal with Adam's learning difficulties and the man had almost completely ignored them.

"Memory? What about his memory?" Cedar asked.

"Adam remembers practically everything. He remembers when we picked him up at the Orphanage in London." Brian explained, seeing as June was occupied with hugging Adam till he popped.

They talked for a bit longer of what being a demi-god entailed—fighting, danger, near death experiences, _actual_ death. Adam was not thrilled about the fighting thing at all; he much preferred dealing with things peacefully. He would train with all the others though, because he also didn't really like death by monster. At the end, when Cedar was about to leave he turned to June and Brian as if something had just occurred to him.

"Are you two completely okay with this? Parents that don't know this stuff usually freak out."

"Why would we not be alright with it?" June asked in a confused way.

"June… some people aren't as… open minded as us… like those people who wear boring colors and watch too much television while being on their cell phone simultaneously… like the ones with too much plastic surgery and who put cans in the garbage can…" Brian seemed to have forgotten what point he was trying to make, but it seemed as if June understood perfectly.

"No no, we're quite fine with Adam being part god, we've always know that he was special, that's why we adopted him. He's just turning out to be more so than we had anticipated, but it's a good thing." She played with Adam's curls for a moment, and then she sighed wistfully. "I'm going to miss him for the summer though. A whole summer without my little boy! We'll have to do something fun when you return." She said to Adam.

Cedar left with an odd expression on his face, as if he was unused to that kind of response.

But now Adam was telling Violet all about his newfound heritage the day after finding out and the day before he left for what felt like a whole new world.

"So you're going to a camp for people who are part god?" Violet chewed her raspberry bubble-gum noisily. Adam had brought it from his stash of raspberry flavoured goods. He was going to be gone all summer so he had given her the whole pack.

"Yup!" Adam threw the baseball at her.

"And the people who aren't part god can't see it?" She chucked it back at him.

"Well… I dunno. Cedar just said that they couldn't pass the "Boundary" or something. And the non-godly people who can't see through some Mist won't be able to see any of the special weapons or monsters."

"But you don't like weapons; when Bobby from floor two tried to make a game of pretending to hit the other kids with a hockey stick you took it. You still haven't given it back to him." Violet pointed out.

"He wasn't being nice! He shouldn't have a hockey stick if he's just going to be mean with it! But yeah, I'm just going to do the sword fights and stuff so I can defend myself. I'm not going to go and hit people with my sword for fun!"

"You have to take pictures of the camp and show them to me."

"I don't have a camera."

Violet held onto the ball this time and motioned him over to her forbidden backpack. She opened it slowly, and Adam was wiggling in anticipation. He was finally going to know what was so precious that Violet always held it so tightly all the time. When the pink Hello Kitty backpack was opened Adam was greeted with more pink. And Hello Kitty.

There was a big lump covered in a scarf or two, and when Violet unwrapped it a Polaroid camera covered in stickers ranging from unicorns to rainbows to hearts to Hello Kitty. It was in wonderful condition—probably because it had been wrapped in multiple scarves. It was obviously well loved by Violet though, and Adam suspected that she took it everywhere with her and it was the reason that she protected her backpack even from her old imaginary friends Mojo and Miles. In the bag there were also several refills of film.

"I want you to take it."

Adam looked at his best friend with wide eyes. This was a very big thing, bigger even then when he had let her wear his shoes while walking home from the park because her sandals had broken.

"Are you sure? I could just ask—"

Violet shook her head, whipping her braids from side to side. "'Course I'm sure. You need a camera and I got one, so you're gonna take it. 'Sides, my daddy said that since I've had this one so long and taken such good care of it he'll get me a better one—I'm gonna be one of those people who take pictures for their job."

Adam stared at his friend in amazement; this just solidified his thoughts that she was the best and smartest person that he knew.

She continued, "But you can't take it apart like you do with everything else." Adam opened his mouth, "Yeah yeah, I know that they always work better afterwards but I'm trusting you with this and I don't want you messing with it. You're only allowed to put new film in when you run out." She dumped all the film containers at his feet, and handed him the camera delicately.

They were silent for a good minute—which felt like years to Adam. Then Adam sniffed.

"I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." Violet hugged him tightly.

The next morning Adam, along with his parents caught a cab early in the morning and set off for Camp Half-Blood. He had packed his favourite toys, his clothes, a few books that his mum wanted him to get through, the whole of his raspberry candy stash, and a sticker covered camera wrapped in scarves.


	6. Chapter 6

Adam loved Camp Half-Blood. When he had walked into camp he had been greeted by a very nice centaur named Chiron, who introduced him to Mr. D, who was actually a Greek wine god named Dionysus—who seemed grumpy. Their conversation had gone very well in Adam's opinion.

"Did Cedar explain things well enough for you Adam?" Chiron asked.

Adam nodded his head fast, making his loose brown curls bounce. "Yup! He said that my birth mother or father is a Greek god and that I get to come to camp for the summer." Adam leaned forward suddenly. "Do you grow raspberries as well as strawberries here?"

Chiron looked a little thrown. "Oh… um… I'm sure that the Demeter cabin does, but it's mostly strawberries. Why?"

"Raspberries are the best."

"What do you mean 'mother or father'? Do you not know which would be a god?" Mr. D asked bluntly, not really that interested.

"I'm adopted from England." Adam answered cheerfully while rummaging through his suitcase.

This seemed to make Chiron concerned though. He was thinking of all the parents that didn't take their child being part god well and assuming that it would be worse with adopted parents. "And did they take the news well?"

"Yup. Mummy was so happy for me, and daddy said that he was going to read up on Greek stuff while I was gone. Mummy took me to get the top part of my ear pierced and promised that we would do something fun together when I got back home." Adam prattled on, only stopping in his search to show off a sapphire stone stud earring that pierced his cartilage. Adam finally found what he was looking for; the Polaroid camera that Violet had given to him. He stood up straight.

For the first time the centaur and wine god looked at the boy in front of them. His green eyes were wide and darting every which way. He bounced on the balls of his feet, obviously filled with excess energy. He wore Converse shoes that were covered in rainbow sequins, red bellbottom jeans, a purple sweatband on his forearm, and a black T-shirt with the face of Hello Kitty on it. He had double piercings in his earlobes, the first set was rubies, the second emeralds, and already had his cartilage pierced. He also held a camera with colorful stickers decorating it. He was very odd.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Well let's get you situated in the Hermes cabin." He started to leave.

"Wait!" Adam halted him, and then he took a few pictures of the three of them together. "Okay, now we can go."

When they were gone Mr. D muttered to himself, "They get weirder every year."

After that Adam was introduced to the Hermes cabin councillor Luke and all of his cabin mates. The ones that stuck out at him the most were Travis and Connor Stoll; they were making jokes every few minutes and looked devious—they also had the last name that sounded like 'Stole, so that made them suspicious. Luke was showing him around camp, with Adam snapping pictures of all the important bits when he noticed that there weren't really any kids his age; they were mostly ages ranging from twelve to seventeen. He wished Violet could have come.

"Is there a god with a hammer as their symbol?" Adam asked while in the crafts area. He was definitely going to be coming back there. They had clay and a pottery wheel and paints. Adam was happy that the only thing to do was sword fight—he had already been shown the training area's and got a funny tangled feeling in his stomach when he saw all the sharp weapons.

Luke glanced at him. He seemed to be distracted and looked a little bored with the whole process of showing Adam around. "Yeah, that would be Hephaestus, god of fire, blacksmiths, and craftsmen. His cabin's over there." He pointed to the cabin with the most defences. "Why?"

"Because I think I was already sort of cl—" He cut himself off. He had seen something shiny. There was a really pretty girl with earthy brown hair, green eyes, and a kind face. It was what she was wearing though, that commandeered his attention. It was a bandana that was covered with sequins and different colored crystals. "Hey! That matches my shoes!"

The girl heard him. She looked over at Adam and Luke and walked over. "Hi Luke, who's the new camper?"

"I'm Adam Willow. Your bandana matches my shoes!" Adam thought this was fantastic. He hated how nobody seemed to wear anything sparkly, and Violet said that it was because those people wanted to be boring. Here was a person that had something with sparkles all over it; this girl was obviously one of the cooler campers.

"I'm Katie Gardner." She smiled, and it was so nice and genuine, not like Luke's slightly condescending ones. "I got this bandana from a friend of mine in the Aphrodite cabin. I love your shoes; they're super nice!"

"What cabin are you in?"

"Demeter." She looked over to Luke, doing a not-so-secret glance that asked, _is he one of the unclaimed?_ And Luke nodded, _Yeah. Another one._ They were lucky that Adam wasn't paying much attention to them at the moment—and that he was too young to really get what they were conveying to one another. Adam's eyes lit up at the name Demeter. Wasn't that the one that Chiron had mentioned might have raspberries?

"Do you grow raspberries?" He asked bluntly.

Katie blinked. "No." She saw Adams face fall. "But we have some space for planting some. You can help me grow them if you feel you're up to it."

Adam nodded; if it got him some raspberries, then he would help. It sounded fun too, and they will probably taste even better because they'll be picked right off the bush. Now he had another excuse to avoid weapons. Luke left him with Katie, and together Adam and his new friend went to her cabin and she explained what would be required of him and how growing food was hard work.

By the time it was dark and Adam was back in the Hermes cabin for sleep, he was exhausted. He dreamt of picking rainbow raspberries, the Orphanage in London, and green eyes that mirrored his own.


	7. Chapter 7

A couple days after Adam got to camp, this other kid—Percy Jackson—came. There was a lot of gossip that was spread around when he was unconscious. Apparently the twelve year old boy had killed the Minotaur with his bare hands. Adam wasn't quite sure what the Minotaur was—he still had some studying to do—but it seemed dangerous, and quite honestly he was just concerned if Percy was alright. He was asleep for three days!

Then after Percy Jackson awoke there was capture the flag—which Adam didn't participate in thank the gods; he was too young and untrained—where he was claimed by Poseidon. It quickly became known that this was a big No-No—Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus were not allowed to have children. Then there was some quest that Percy Jackson went on with a girl named Annabeth Chase from the Athena cabin and a Satyr named Grover Underwood. Adam thought that it was all very hectic; he was glad he didn't have a Great Prophecy hanging over his head. When the three of them left though, things went back to normal, more or less.

For the rest of the summer Adam spent his time mainly in three places and made friends with two people.

First of all, it was pretty obvious early on that sword fighting wasn't really Adam's forte. Whenever he would swing at somebody he would close his eyes and cringe—he really didn't like the fact that he was practicing on a live person. After that he was given a dagger, which felt better in his hand but he always hesitated. Then he tried throwing knives, which was much better. It felt right in his hand, and he was given inanimate objects to aim at. Since he was good with aim he was directed to the archery range, and that was how Adam met Will Solace.

Will was fourteen with golden blond hair and sky blue eyes. His father was Apollo and Will definitely fit in with the stereotypical image of a sun gods son. Will had started out the lesson on how to hold a bow in monotone, but once he realized that Adam held the bow in the perfect grip almost instinctually, he got more animated.

"Most people go for the swords right away. They don't appreciate bows as much because their long-range weapons. There isn't as much glory when you kill a monster from far away." Will confided. "Okay, now shoot!" Adam shot, hitting the second circle in the target.

"I suck with swords." Adam notched an arrow. "I don't like them."

Will smiled at the hyper eight year old and from then on Will was always the one to give Adam lessons. Adam learned that Will's mom was a teacher and that he figured that he might try that out too when he was older, or maybe become a famous singer. He played the guitar very well and was learning how to play piano. He had tried to teach Adam how to play a song on his guitar, but Adam had a problem with sitting down for so long and had eventually given up.

Another person that Adam had grown attached to was Katie—who was twelve. Together they would care for the fast growing raspberries every morning and Adam thought that Katie would get along great with his mummy. They both really liked hugging him, but they also liked baking.

"Whenever I go home for the school year," Katie said. "The first thing I always do is bake oatmeal raison cookies or a carrot cake. My dad has a sweet tooth, but though he's a good florist he's terrible in the kitchen. Then we talk about what happened to the other over the summer while stuffing our faces with sugar."

"My mummy owns a bakery. It's called 'Sweet Tooth'. She makes the best chocolate fudge." Adam offered. They would continue to talk about their favorite foods—where Adam mostly talked about raspberries—and Katie would sometimes tell him about Greek Mythology-that-wasn't-really-Mythology.

The place that Adam loved the most though was the crafts area. He had never used clay before, but he decided that he loved the feeling of it squishing in between his fingers. He made a small bowl with the pottery wheel too, after many failed attempts. This was really where he had his quiet time and he made things for his mummy and daddy. His biggest and most worked on project was for Violet though.

He had been given a big paint canvas and he was making a sort of collage for her. He was painting all of the things that he thought that she would like to see at Camp Half-Blood and then strategically gluing on the Polaroid pictures that he had taken.

Adam had a wonderful summer, and was sad when he had to leave. He would miss Katie and Will. He had made them both a small bowl that was painted in colors that suited their cabins, and in return Katie had given him a headband that was just like her bandana and Will had given him a dangly earing that had a sun on it made out of metal.

"I asked the guy's in Hephaestus to make it." He explained.

The only downside of the summer—besides being away from his family and Violet—was when Percy Jackson came back from his quest it became known that Luke was the one to actually steal Zeus' Master Bolt. And Luke tried to kill Percy Jackson with a scorpion. Adam had a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that Luke would do that; sure, he hadn't been the _most_ welcoming to Adam, but he had seemed like a nice person.

When Adam left the camp boundary and met up with his parents, who were waiting outside of a cab for him, he couldn't he but run into his mummy's arms. He loved camp a lot—it was really exciting, and there were really nice people there, and a bunch of stuff to do—but he had started feeling homesick without even noticing. He was glad that he got to go home and tell his parents all about how much he got to do, and then he would get to go back to his normal routine where he played catch with Violet on Saturday's.


	8. Chapter 8

It was about halfway through the school year, and a specific group of teachers were acting like their students; they were gossiping. There was the Pre-school teacher Mrs. Kay with her brown hair, brown eyes, and brown dress. Mr. Quinn who taught Kindergarten—he was tall and painfully thin with corn yellow hair and murky hazel eyes. Then there was Miss Todd; fake smile, dyed blond hair, plastic body—she was the grade one teacher. The last in the gossip group was the unwilling Mr. Arkson. He looked grumpy about the fact that he had been pulled into such childish actions, but that didn't mean he didn't have anything to say on the subject.

The subject being: Adam Willow.

This group had formed the year before when Mr. Arkson was found puzzling through some very scrawling homework. Miss Todd had recognized it almost immediately as Adam's. Apparently it was hard to forget such chicken scratch. Mr. Quinn had been pulled into the conversation when he heard Adam's name, and had dragged Mrs. Kay with him. Right now they were planning—_plotting_—on dragging the new teacher, Miss Trellis, into the Circle of Breaching Confidentiality.

Miss Trellis walked into the teacher's lounge with her usual serene expression covering her face, her mud brown hair in a messy bun. The lounge was green walls and linoleum. The room medium sized room contained three round tables with chairs, a counter with an old coffee machine on it, and a box of doughnuts that somebody had brought in to share. Miss Selena Trellis was walking to one of the unoccupied tables when she was waylaid by Miss Todd.

"Why don't you sit with us Selena? We haven't really gotten to know each other yet. How is you class doing?" She asked brightly.

"Thank you Maria." Selena took a seat with the other four teachers and put her lunch on the table. "They are doing very well; I'm enjoying teaching them very much. There are, of course, the usual trouble makers and difficult ones, but there are enough of the easier ones to make it worthwhile."

"What types of problems are you having with the children?" Mrs. Kay prodded.

"Nothing very big, Angela; just some of them don't like doing their homework and some exclusion. They're only nine though, what else can you expect?" Selena asked rhetorically, her grey eyes happy.

"Yes, yes." Mr. Arkson waved a pale hand dismissively. "I had a good amount of the kids in your class last year and there were some definite stand out trouble makers. If you have a specific person in mind I could give you some advice as to how to deal with them. Maria, Angela, and Ben can help as well; they've had the children when they were just starting to pick up their bad habits."

"Oh…" Selena looked uncomfortable with handing out names. It didn't seem right to be talking about her students behind their back when they themselves were supposed to be teaching their students that gossiping was a form of bullying. It seemed rather hypocritical. "There aren't any that really stand out. As I said it's only minor things."

Maria Todd laughed too loudly to be real and put a hand on Selena's arm as if they were close. "There's no need to be shy! We're only trying to help you!" She smiled widely. "Besides, we probably already know the ones that are giving you problems. One name in particular comes to mind."

Now Selena looked confused. She had no idea what child Maria could be talking about. Samantha could be mean sometimes, but nothing overly serious and she planned on bringing it to her parent's attention so it was fine. Kyle liked pulling on girl's hair, but he always apologised when the girls said it hurt. Selena couldn't think of any of her students that could be classified as a "Bad Kid."

"Who?"

"Adam Willow of course!" Maria said in a way that said that it was painfully obvious.

"What? Adam?" Selena went wide eyed.

Benjamin Quinn spoke up for the first time. "He is such a sweet boy, and very energetic… but a bit hard to teach." Ben admitted softly. "He can never sit still, and I think it distracts the other children."

"And he can't keep up with the other students with his reading and writing skills." David Arkson put in his two cents. He had been constantly frustrated by Adam's slow progress, and he wasn't impressed with how the boy could barely sit still for two minutes. Sure, he had ADHD, but is it really that had to be still? David had been momentarily concerned when Adam was attacked by one of his student helpers, but that seemed far enough away now that he was able to put it at the back of his mind.

Selena couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You all think Adam—_Adam Willow!_—is a problem in class? That he's slow, and disruptive, and _hard to teach?!_"

"Yes." David said plainly, and Maria nodded. Ben and Angela just shrugged.

"Well," Selena began frostily, packing up her untouched lunch. "_I_ think that you all couldn't be more wrong. Adam hands in his work on time complete. He is always doing his best. He and his friend Emma Chilling are my two top students. He is the_ least _disruptive in _my opinion_. Oh, and you do know that the reason he is so energetic is because he had Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, right? And Adam is keeping up just fine with all of the other students with reading and writing; he may even be a bit ahead of them." She picked up her things and walked towards the door, and then she turned to look at the slightly stunned faces of the unprofessional teachers. "If you are going to act like some_ gossiping teenagers_ at least leave the children out of it."


	9. Chapter 9

"Do you have your paints?"

"Yes."

"Brushes?"

"Yep."

"Books?"

"Of course!"

"Well… do you have… um… Violet's camera?"

"I've got everything dad."

Brian floundered for something that could have been forgotten, looking slightly crazed while doing so. They were sitting at the dining table for dinner. Adam was ten-turning-eleven and was going to Camp Half-Blood the day after the next. The next day he would spend with Violet, and he didn't want to have to rush in packing when he came back to his apartment so he had been instructed by his dad to get everything done that day while June—his mum—made them a dinner of vegetarian lasagna.

Adam hadn't changed much since he had first gone to camp. He still loved working with his hands; his best friend was still Violet despite the fact that she was in the grade above him and he went to camp for the summers; he still thought that bright colors and sequins were the epitome of awesome; and he still was unclaimed in camp, residing in the Hermes Cabin. He was also different though, because instead of bellbottoms he wore skinny jeans—of any color—and his brown hair was longer—coming to his shoulders; Violet had requested him to let his hair grow out so she could play with it—and he had more piercings.

He still stuck with his ears for now, but there were many more then before. In his left ear he wore the dangly earing that Will had gotten him for his first summer at camp, then he wore a white gold hoop in his second hole and above that a ruby stud. In the cartilage he had an emerald stud and a sapphire one. His right ear held another dangly earing that he had been given his second summer by Katie that had a metal flower at the end, a matching white gold hoop, and a pink pearl stud—given to him by Violet—in his earlobe. Then a ruby and emerald in his cartilage.

He was still skinny with knobby knees, but he had hit a small growth spurt and was no longer the shortest in his class. He was a bit stronger, with his archery and knife throwing practice, and so had a bit more muscle instead of his before-camp physique of skin and bone. He had been extremely lucky for the past two years and not encountered a monster, and so he hadn't 'killed' a monster which was a relief. Adam thought that all the monsters were ignoring him because there was a son of Poseidon around and he smelled _so much better_.

Adam hadn't really had any interaction with the older boy. It seemed as if Percy was constant danger and had the worst luck. Adam started camp the same summer as Percy but Percy was always on a quest; the second summer the both of them came the tree—Thalia's tree—that kept the camp border that made sure that they were monster free was poisoned by Luke and he went on some dangerous-and-adventurous quest to find the Golden Fleece—the only thing that could save camp from being overrun by Demi-god Eaters.

He succeeded of course, just like the year before, but the Golden Fleece had some unexpected side effects. Thalia was a daughter of Zeus that got defeated right before she made it to the camp border while saving her friends. Just while she was dying, Zeus took pity on her and turned her into a tree. Adam wasn't sure why this was better than going to the Underworld for Elysium—being a tree sounded boring, no matter how much Adam loved them. The Golden Fleece though, was so powerful that it healed her and ejected her from the tree—again, Adam wasn't sure how that worked, wasn't _she_ the tree? How could she eject herself? Anyway, there ended up being a big hoopla about the fact that there was two children of the Big Three now. Who was the Prophecy child now?

Adam figured that there would be a really big crisis this summer too, that Percy would have to go on a quest for, as usual. It was really obvious to Adam that the Prophecy was about Percy, he was the one that was doing all the hard tasks; he was the one going to make a big difference. He was already part way to the end. (He tried not to think much on it though, because then what would happen to the Thalia girl? Would she be turned into a Maple instead of Pine this time around?)

"Are you sure—?"

The doorbell rang exactly three times.

Brian went to answer it.

He came back with a very odd man.

The man had strait dishwater hair that was parted severely down the middle, an upturned nose, protruding ears, and squinty hazel eyes. He wore a black cloak that looked like it was from the middle ages that was iron-strait. Despite his stern appearance he was smiling in a friendly kind of way.

"Hello, I am Professor Ray Highland. I come from Day-school Academy for Magic to invite you to get your magical education at this new, up and coming school." He continued to smile kindly after his rehearsed—and rather blunt—introduction.

Adam had a very strong feeling of Deja-vu from when he was told he was a demi-god two years ago by Cedar.

"Next year you're going to this magic school?" Violet asked. To be honest she wasn't surprised; Adam told her all of the craziness that happened in his life and had showed her some of his magic—making objects float, changing the color of his shirt, turning his homework into a different language. She wondered if she should feel jealous that he was so special and had a god as a parent, but she had known Adam for as long as she could remember, and he had always been different. She supposed that she was used to it, and he was always so innocent about everything. How could she be mad at him when he made her picture boards and scrap books of all the things that she couldn't see for herself? How could she be mad at him when he allowed her to braid his hair like he was doing right now right in the hallway?

"Yeah, Professor Highland said it was called Day-school Academy for Magic. Everybody calls it D.A.M. though. Apparently." Adam frowned and wiggled a bit from his awkward position. He was raised upon his elbows with his legs stretched out before him and his neck bending forward. Violet was sitting cross-legged behind him, making a bunch of tiny braids out of his hair.

"Dam?"

Adam giggled. "Yeah, now I get to say DAM all I want. All I have to say is that I'm talking about school."

"You'll bring me back some magic stuff right? Even if it's like a key chain, I'll keep it forever. I promise! And you'll take pictures right?" Violet's words blurred together.

"Of course I'm going to get you stuff! I'll even let you read my course books so you'll understand what I'm talking about. I'll take a bunch of pictures too. The Professor said that the Polaroid camera would work because it's not electronic—they don't work around magic places."

"How are we going to keep in touch?"

Adam scrunched up his nose. "What do ya mean? It's a _day-school_ Violet!" Adam smiled widely and turned around to look at his best friend. "It'll be barely any different from now. We aren't in the same grade, so we would only miss each other on break, but Emma will still be there still."

"But how do you get to the DAM? Is it somewhere secret? How do you get home?"

"Every student gets a ring, and it acts almost like teleporting. It's called a Portkey, I think. Anyway, in the morning we arrive there for seven—that's when the classes start—and at four—when classes end—we come back home. We have to say the full name of the school to go there and back. And it's 'Unplottable.' So, I guess I don't know where it is. Huh." Adam looked mildly surprised.

"That's such a long school day!"

"Yep! From three to four is when we do our homework. It's so that if we need help we can ask one of the teachers, and in case we need the library."

"Then you'll come home and we'll play? You're not going to forget me?"

"No! Violet, you're my best friend. I wish you could come with me." Adam scowled. Why did he have magic when Violet didn't? It didn't seem fair. Why couldn't Hecate give her magic too?

"So," Violet smiled suddenly, "do you think you're finally going to kill your first monster this year?"

Adam looked a little green around the edges. "I hope not."


	10. Chapter 10

Adam hugged his parents close to the camp border and watched as they got back into the cab that had driven them there and drive off. He was about to pick up his suitcase when he heard the growling. A massive black dog with flaming red eyes came into view. The dog was the size of an ice-cream truck, was drooling enough to fill a big bathtub, and was obviously hungry. A Hell Hound. Adam's breath caught somewhere in his stomach and sunk like vegetarian meatloaf—unpleasantly. Was this dog really the first monster that he would have to legitimately fight?

_Yes,_ his mind confirmed as the overgrown dog stalked toward him unceasingly. _Yes he was._

"Nice puppy." Adam said softly while backing away. "I don't have any treats with me, but if you just let me go past that tree on that hill over there I can give you a whole year's worth of fake bacon. It almost tastes the same! Well, that's what I hear; I've not had real bacon that I can remember, so I'm just going by what the commercials say. Don't you want some delicious—sort of—fake bacon, puppy?" The dog bared its teeth at him in annoyance. "I guess that's a no, huh?" Adam asked miserably, already thinking about how imminent his death was.

The Hell Hound roared.

Adam ran towards the camp border.

The puppy bounded after him.

Adam could feel the hot Hell-breath on the nape of his neck and panicked. He veered to the left, then to the right, and then left again before continuing to the border. The dog pounced though, sending a small shockwave though the ground and Adam lost his footing. He fell forward, the only thing saving his face being his now-stinging palms. He rolled onto his back and came face to face with the rotting breath of dead and eaten flesh. And an open maw. Adam pulled one of his throwing knives out of the holster on his wrist and slashed in a wide arc on instinct.

The thing reared back and roared once again, this time in pain. There was a deep cut that went from its forehead, through one of its eyes, to its wet nose. Adam did a backwards summersault twice—which made him incredibly dizzy—and stood up. He pulled his arm back, aiming at the disoriented and partially blind Hound, and then let his arm fly forward, releasing the knife. It flew straight at the face of the monster and pierced its bad eye. The puppy made a peculiar whining sound when the sharp Celestial Bronze knife _thunk-_ed dully on the back of its skull. It wobbled for a moment, its good eye rolling, before it fell to the grass in dust.

Adam stared at the sand that used to be a monster with protruding eyes. He had just killed his first monster—and it was a puppy. Spots crowded his vision; he felt like he was going to pass out. He distantly heard the cheering of the demi-gods that had come to help when they heard fighting. He put his head between his knees and the whooshing in his ears quieted. There was a light just above his head now, and when he looked up and saw a flaming hammer above his head. Adam realised that all the voices had gone silent, and looked to see that all the demi-gods were bowing.

Chiron stepped forward and said, "Hail, Adam Willow, Son of Hephaestus, god of Fire, Blacksmiths, and Craftsmen."

"Oh…" Adam fidgeted when everyone looked at him expectantly. "I already knew that…"

"What?" Katie asked, and got back to her feet. "How?"

Adam pulled off the sweat band he always wore on his forearm off, baring the brand of a hammer that had always been hidden. "I got this when I was five and getting my first ear piercing. My father—even though I didn't know that at the time—pierced one of my ears and gave me a nectar candy after. Then he grabbed my arm and gave me this. It didn't even hurt!" Adam beamed.

Everyone was staring at him like he was crazy.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Back to your activities everyone!"

"Come on Adam; let's go get your bag." Will suggested with an easy smile that looked amused for some reason.

"Okay. Has anything happened that I should know about?"

"There has been a fair bit that you might want to catch up on."

"Let me guess, it has something to do with Percy Jackson going on a quest."

"How did you know?"


	11. Chapter 11

The medium sized department store called Here And There Emporium sat in front of the small family of three. It was painted a cheery yellow and was without windows that made it seem anything but. There was a white picket fence surrounding the whole thing, which was confusing because this wasn't a cull-de-sac neighborhood. It was shaped exactly like a rectangle so it had a flat roof. When Brian, June, and Adam had been given directions to the building, which was between a hairdresser and a dollar store, they had been told that it repelled all muggles—non-magical people; this confused Adam because he was already calling those kind of people mortals, which one was right?—except when the muggles were holding hands with a wizard or witch and was aware that it was supposed to be there. Professor Highland had said that inside Adam could find all of his school supplies, where there would be a bunch of smaller shops, like a mall.

Adam had come back two weeks early from camp in order to get prepared for his new school, and he was quite glad that he had. It was harder to enjoy camp this summer because of the quest Percy was on. Adam didn't know Annabeth personally, and she seemed too intimidating for him to approach her, but he was still upset that she had been kidnapped by monsters. Plus, a lot of the rumors going around had said that she was being tortured, which was horrible enough to think was happening so why did they have to voice it at all hours of the day and night? Sure, everything had ended up mostly alright at the end, with Annabeth coming back in relatively good health and Thalia joining the Hunters of Artemis so there was no chance of her being the Prophecy Child, but there were still bad things that summer.

Bianca di Angelo had died, and left behind her brother Nico. Though really, she had ditched her brother earlier when she joined the Hunters. Adam had been kind of angry that she would just leave her ten year old brother alone like that at the first opportunity, just because she didn't want the responsibility, but that didn't mean he wanted her to die. Adam had spent some time with Nico, and thought that he was really cool. He was almost as hyper as Adam, and he had taught him how to play Mythomagic. He didn't deserve to lose his sister; he didn't deserve the way all the other campers for some reason shied away from him subconsciously. Adam wasn't sure he blamed him for running away; what had camp _really_ given him?

Then there were the Hunters of Artemis. When Adam was practicing archery, they would make snide and hurtful comments about his aim, the way he held his bow, his footing, anything.

"Why are you being so mean to me?" Adam asked one time, his voice slightly tearful. "I've never done anything to you."

"Because you're a boy." The girl—who had brown hair and eyes and skin—said in a superior tone while sticking her nose in the air. Her friends scoffed, like he had said something stupid.

"So?"

"So you're a pig and a liar and stupid. You shouldn't be allowed to breathe the same air as us." She had an ugly smile on her pretty face that made Adam feel angry—which he rarely felt. His mum had always told him how pointless it was to be angry, because it was always easier and more effective if you were calm. She said that it infuriated people not to get a reaction.

"And you have brown eyes." Adam said in a voice he had heard his mum use. It was mild and calm and mature sounding. "So I suppose you should be put to death."

"_Excuse me?_"

"Oh yes. You see brown eyes aren't as good as blue and green eyes. I have green eyes, so I'll be alright."

"What are you talking about?!"

"Well, I assumed that by your attitude against me—because I'm a boy—I am allowed to put other ridiculous and horrible views onto you. You see, there was once a horrible man who hated Jewish people and brown eyes. He killed as many Jews as possible and brown eyed people had to go to, obviously, because Jewish people had brown eyes. They had brown hair too, so you would have been one of the first to go. His name was Hitler, and he was a very bad _man_." Adam tilted his head to the side and examined the shocked girls in front of him. "Wow, you have a lot in common with his ideals… and he was a boy!"

After that Adam had walked away. The girls still gave him disdainful looks, as if he was fouling up the air, but they had kept their comments to themselves. Adam had been very proud of himself.

Adam did like his new cabin with his siblings. He hadn't really gotten close to any of them—they were really into electronics, while Adam was really more of the 'Craftsman' even if he was good with machines—but they were really nice to him and made sure that he was comfortable in his new bunk. Charles Beckendorf—who was just called Beckendorf—was really nice, and had even helped him personalize his bunk by helping him put up some of his drawings.

"This is it?" Brian asked dubiously, standing in front of Here And There Emporium. "Well, I suppose that if it's magical… it could be different inside…"

It was very different inside. The moment the three of them walked inside the door, their senses were assaulted. They heard the hoots of owls, meowing of cats, and the croaking of toads. They smelt the Apothecary, which carried potion ingredients and freshly baked bread in a restaurant. There were bright oranges and pinks and neon greens in a clothing shop. All in all, Adam loved it; he knew he would be spending a lot of time in Here And There Emporium—H.A.T.E—just looking through all of the weird shops.


	12. Chapter 12

Adam wasn't sure what he expected of his new school, maybe to be big and dull like his last, or maybe a magical castle. What he saw was much different. At 6:30 that morning, Adam had woken up all by himself, gotten dressed in his uniform—black blazer, navy button-up, black slacks, black shoes—with little noise so he didn't wake his parents, and slid on his school-ring-and-Portkey for the first time. It was made out platinum with a black stone imbedded in it, and Adam thought that it looked very fine on his hand. When he had arrived—feeling a little sick with the sensation of Portkey's—he was standing in front of the school doors.

The school was a small cottage. It was a very nice cottage, with a light blue paint job, and a lovely shingled roof, a nice little flowerbed with daisies and tulips and flowers that Adam did not recognize that were all blooming. But still a cottage. Adam had walked through the door and came into a spacious foyer that looked thrice the size of the whole outside suggested—and this was only the foyer. There were other kids in there too, all around his age of ten-eleven.

They were already clustered into their cliques and gossiping like they had known each other their whole lives. There was only one kid that seemed approachable to Adam. The kid was of average height, with dirty blond hair, pale skin with a heart shaped birthmark below his left ear. He wore a poison green t-shirt with bold black writing that said: BEWARE THE ZOMBIE APOCOLYPSE.

Adam decided that this kid was cool. They could be friends.

"Are you related to Percy Jackson?" Caleb turned his head but kept walking. It was the third week of school, so every one of the new students were just getting into a routine. The classes were also just starting to give out serious homework.

The first class, Enchanting, was taught by Mrs. Croft. She was plump and gray and had a grandmotherly feel that made you want to help with anything she needed in order to gain a smile. Enchanting was basically Charms that lasted for years instead of hours or at best, days. First they would learn the Charm, and when deemed proficient, would move on to the real work. Everyone thought it was wonderful, but then they got the Charm and were told to do it silently. Then it got much more serious.

The second class was Runes, which many took as just a drawing class. The real purpose of this class though was so if there were dangerous Wards that the Europeans seemed to use, you would be able to decipher them and most likely save your life. It was also for the people that would take the elective Imbuing Magic in year three, to make their own Rune clusters that could be used for any number of things. This class was taught by Mr. Bay, who seemed to just flit around the classroom—there was a rumour that he was part Pixie.

Then there was Mind Magic. This was by far the slowest going, not to mention difficult. There was a lot of meditation involved, and being aware of your own thoughts before you could guard them. Miss. Penn always had her black hair in a high bun, and a stern expression. She was not unreasonable, but if you goofed off in her class she would give you a detention without hesitation or warning—you had to be aware of yourself. "Do you want somebody more proficient in the Mind Arts rooting through your thoughts? Tearing apart your memories and morphing your perceptions to suit them? No, I didn't think so." This was her introduction and it definitely set the tone for her lessons.

Animagus Training, taught by Mr. Lee, was a lot like Enchanting. There were many things that they were made to do first before actually got to become their inner animal. They had learn Transfiguration first (silently), and study the anatomy and habitat and mannerisms of many _many_ animals. This wasn't strictly necessary to become animagi, and there was no guarantee that any of the animals studied would level of talent in Transfiguration and a Potion to force the process, then practice with turning yourself into your animal form with just your will. Mr. Lee was thorough.

Conjuration was just considered another branch of Transfiguration in Europe, but in D.A.M. Madame Belgarde made it a sort of study of things. They were given small objects first: an eraser or a clear marble. The students needed to know it to the smallest detail. Then they were made to recreate it. Madame said that in year three or four—it depended how fast you learned—they would start to try small things without a wand. (Of course, before this they needed to be able to conjure things silently.)

Potions was taught by Miss Mud. She was short and perky, blond and smiley. She was very in depth and thorough on the theory of the potions they would be brewing the day before they did or set it as homework. The class that everyone had thought would be serious was more of a cooking party—Miss Mud was very popular, both in and out of class, despite the fact that she gave at least one serious essay a month.

Non-Magical culture was basically History and References for Dummies. Mrs. Lee was very different from her husband: she liked to have fun and lots of it. They would play games, watch movies, she would assign fantasy books to read and write summaries on as much as chapters and questions from their text book.

The last class—for now, there were electives in year three—was Physical Education. Mr. Fox was the kind of teacher to supervise while he drank a coffee and ate a doughnut, but the class was one of the most well liked regardless. There were five activities that they did: soccer, archery, swimming, gymnastics, and running. They would alternate between all five. (Running was unanimously the least liked.)

"No." Caleb answered shortly.

"Oh, because I go to the same camp as him, and it would have been cool if you were…" And he just kept babbling on like a hyper monkey. Caleb eyed him. A colorful hyper monkey with a lot of ear piercings. He wasn't sure what made Adam think that he would be a good friend. Caleb was a loner and he liked it that way—his anti-social tendencies flourished.

"Look," Caleb got fed up, "can you just shut up? You're acting like an ADHD kid high in candy."

Adam looked hurt, and held up his bag of sour gummy worms. "I do have ADHD, as well as Dyslexia."

Great, now Caleb felt bad. He had known Adam for three weeks and didn't know that—and Adam had probably told him. He took a breath. "Hey, what was this you were saying about your camp? About having archery there too?" Adam started talking again, but this time Caleb was actually listening, and he found that it wasn't as boring and pointless as he had thought. Adam was still annoying though—he would never admit that the weird kid was growing on him.

**Additional Information:**

**Monday:**  
7:05-8:30~Enchanting  
8:35-10:00~Runes  
10:05-11:30~Mind Magic

11:30-12:00~Lunch

12:05-1:30~Animagus  
1:35-3:00~Physical Education  
3:05-4:00~Homework Help

**Tuesday:**  
7:05-8:30~Conjuration  
8:35-10:00~Potions  
10:05-11:30~Animagus

11:30-12:00~Lunch

12:05-1:30~Enchanting  
1:35-3:00~Non-Magical Culture  
3:05-4:00~Homework Help

**Wednesday:**  
7:05-8:30~Mind Magic  
8:35-10:00~Animagus  
10:05-11:30~Runes

11:30-12:00~Lunch

12:05-1:30~Conjuration  
1:35-3:00~Physical Education  
3:05-4:00~Homework Help

**Thursday:**  
7:05-8:30~Animagus  
8:35-10:00~Enchanting  
10:05-11:30~Runes

11:30-12:00~Lunch

12:05-1:30~Potions  
1:35-3:00~Non-Magical Culture  
3:05-4:00~Homework Help

**Friday:**  
7:05-8:30~Conjuration  
8:35-10:00~Mind Magic  
10:05-11:30~Potions

11:30-12:00~Lunch

12:05-1:30~Animagus  
1:35-3:00~Physical Education  
3:05-4:00~Homework Help

**ADAM'S:**

**Wand**-Juniper wood, twelve inches, and Phoenix feather core(the fire bird).

**Uniform**-Black blazer, navy button-up dress shirt, black slacks, navy socks, black dress shoes (tie optional.)

**CALEB JACKSON'S [Caleb(dog; heart)]:**

**Wand**-Hazel wood, eleven inches, and Unicorn horn shard core.


End file.
